5 years of 'it' – … it's only knock and knowall, but I like it.

5 years of the German Genesis fan club it in retrospect by Helmut Janisch

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"Der Genesis Fan"

Long before our club was founded, there were Genesis fan clubs in Germany. The oldest club known to us must have been founded around the mid-1970s. Since at least that time, there has always been a German Genesis fan club, with a few brief interruptions. We will report on this topic in detail in a special feature at some point. Our predecessor club, which existed alongside us for two years, was Der Genesis Fan, which existed from late 1984 to autumn 1993. Some of you, including Bernd and myself, may have been members there.

At the beginning of 1991, I decided that I wanted to change something about the club, because I felt that the publication frequency and layout of the magazine could be improved. My simple copy template layout was well received and was used from then on. But that wasn't enough; I wanted to create the entire magazine on a computer. The ideas and plans were indeed very ambitious. Of course, I had gone too far, and in October '91, the situation escalated into a total rift between me and the creators of Der Genesis Fan.

So my vision of a supposedly better Genesis fan club had failed for the time being, but I didn't want to just bury the idea.

Peter & Bernd

In the May 1991 issue of 'Genesis Fan', I had placed a full-page advertisement calling on Anthony Phillips to perform in Germany. Readers were asked to send their 'requests' to the editorial office, which would then forward them to Ant. The only person who responded – at least according to what I was told – was a fan from Braunschweig: Bernd Zindler (incidentally, the A.P. gig never happened).

Through a record dealer from whom I had been buying CDs for some time, I learned of another fanatical Genesis fan who also happened to live in Braunschweig: Peter Schütz.

I contacted Peter and Bernd in mid-1991, and funnily enough, they both submitted reports that were originally intended to be printed in 'Genesis Fan' No. 23, the first magazine I wanted to create on the computer. But as I said, nothing came of it.

D-D-Do you want to dance with me?

At the beginning of November 1991, I asked Peter if he would like to help set up a new fan club, and he agreed. So we worked on a new layout and named the club Invisible Touch. That seemed sensible to me because it was the best-known Genesis album at the time and would therefore be easily associated with Genesis. The foundation stone had now been laid. Bernd joined us shortly after the release of issue no. 1.

Nr. 1

The first issue of the magazine appeared in December 1991 with a print run of 30 copies. It comprised 26 pages in A4 format and saw the light of day on an ordinary photocopier. It contained various sections that have not existed in this form for some time, such as 'Newspaper Clippings', 'Picture Gallery', 'Genesis on Vinyl' and the bizarrely naive 'Cover Hoffer' page [a section where a fictional album cover was presented].

The first fans became aware of us through a small ad in Oldie-Markt [German magazine for record collectors], and so by the turn of the year 1991/92, our club already had 15 members. The annual membership fee at that time was DM 20. Peter, Bernd and I met for the first time on Epiphany 1992, and we have been good friends ever since.

The Evolution Of A Fanclub

From then on, the club magazines were published quarterly. The content and layout underwent a number of changes over the next few years.

Starting with the second issue, we began offering various fan merchandise for sale. At the time, the range included a button, a T-shirt and a sticker. In the meantime, we had come up with a club logo: the 'Invisible Touch' hand with 'Son' standing on the thumb and the Foxtrot fox next to it became our emblem for the next two years.

In June '92, the membership fee was raised to DM 25, and we welcomed our 100th club member.

From September '92 onwards, all new members received a starter kit consisting of a laminated membership card, the Genesis family tree and an LP overview. The magazine underwent a minor upgrade, with at least the cover page being professionally printed. Nevertheless, I still had to spend hours copying, sorting, folding and binding the rest of the magazine. From today's perspective, it's almost nostalgic, but at the time it was hell. New to the magazine was the classifieds section 'All I Need …'.

One year after our founding, membership had grown to 250, which was of course also due to a strong influx after our flyer campaign at the Genesis concerts in the summer of that year. With the December '92 issue, we launched our 'on tour' section.

We took another big step forward with issue no. 6. It was the first issue that we had produced entirely by a printing company, which meant that we had high-quality illustrations in the magazine for the first time. The print run was 700 copies. With this issue, we also introduced the modified 'Invisible Touch' lettering. With the change from the LP font to the ornate 1972 Nursery Cryme outfit, we wanted to send a small signal, along the lines of: 'We are a club for all Genesis fans from the Gabriel era to the present day.' The fan shop was also expanded slightly from this issue onwards.

From issue no. 8 onwards, we also reported on bootlegs, the 'Genesis on Vinyl' section was incorporated into the new 'Collectomania' section, and letters to the editor were given a permanent place in the magazine.

With the following December '93 issue, a version translated entirely into English was also published for the first time. With this innovation, we wanted to give band members, but above all potential new club members in non-German-speaking countries, the opportunity to read our magazine. However, the 'Translation' appeared in a smaller A5 format, was only photocopied and did not contain any pictures. It was therefore only a supplement to the magazine and not a separate issue.

In the spring of 1994, Bernd, Peter and I worked on a few changes to the club, particularly the magazine. This was already announced in the March issue. From then on, Bernd took over the task of managing the club's membership and finances from me, and Peter was to take over the dispatch of fan merchandise from the next issue onwards. As a preview of what readers could expect three months later, this magazine had two front covers, one in the old layout and a second with the same motif in the new layout.

All change

Issue #11 in June 1994 brought with it a major change in the club's layout and name. It was like a small new beginning. The name 'Invisible Touch', associated with Pop and Collins, had been changed to a simple 'it', in reference to the song from the album The Lamb Lies Down …. And those who couldn't relate to it simply saw 'it' as an abbreviation of the old club name. A new club logo was also part of the changes. The magazine came out with a new look. It was still the same size as before, but the paper was different, and some of the layout elements used up to that point had disappeared and been replaced by new ones.

Incidentally, we still work with this layout today. The magazine's print run (then as now) was 800 copies. The fan shop, now called 'Shop of it-snips', reopened. The old items were no longer available, but there was a large selection of posters, and the range was set to grow steadily from then on. Peter, as the new 'owner' of the shop, earned his nickname 'Mr. Pebble' (in reference to Get 'em Out By Friday). The cartoon, which had been a rather sporadic element of the magazine until then, became a regular feature from then on. Unfortunately, an increase in the club membership fee to DM 30 was also unavoidable.

Of course, not much changed in the aftermath of this comprehensive overhaul.

In September 1994, we were able to offer our new 'own' merchandise (stickers, buttons and patches) for the first time, and the 'Old News & Reviews' have been supplementing the news page ever since (if there is enough space).

The December issue of that year contained the annual surprise bag of photos for the first time, replacing the pictures from the 'Picture Gallery' section that had been glued into the magazine until the layout change.

Issue #14/March 1995 contained the 'Do-it-yourself booklet' for Steve Hackett's Blues With A Feeling CD, the first 'craft project' (at least for those who wanted to cut up this page of their magazine). The new 'Private Tales & Stories' section was launched, and for the first time, a relatively unknown contemporary graced the cover of one of our magazines with a picture of Richard Macphail.

Another "unknown" on the front page of #15: Peter Cross, Anthony's 'house and court illustrator'.

The September 1995 issue was our first 36-page magazine. The sheer volume of articles simply could not be accommodated in the usual 32-page format. At the same time, we also had to discontinue the production of the English 'Translation' supplement with this issue, as the work involved was simply too much for us.

In issue #18, Genesis was replaced by Peter Gabriel as the subject of the regular column 'on tour' (since issue #5).

The two issues preceding this one did not bring any noteworthy innovations, except that issue #20 was again a 'big issue' with 36 pages, thus indicating a trend towards thicker issues.

Speaking of trends: for some time now, membership numbers have tended to stagnate rather than increase or decrease, levelling off at just over 500 members.

All change again?

More than two years have passed since the last major change to the magazine and the club – in our opinion, it is time to reconsider various aspects. Some critical readers, myself included, are no longer satisfied with certain aspects of the layout. In addition, for various reasons, we need to come up with a new concept for the club, as Peter, Bernd and I all need more freedom outside of the fan club. What this new concept will look like and when it will take effect is still uncertain. We will discuss this at the beginning of 1997.

Who dunnit?

Unfortunately, it is impossible to list all the hard-working helpers of the past five years. However, we would like to thank each and every one of you who did not just sit around waiting for your new magazine, but wrote specials, album and concert reviews, drew cartoons and so on, more or less frequently. Anyone who has ever done anything for us will know who they are. Without your help, many things would have been much more difficult, and for that we thank you.

Could you please sign these 483 CD booklets, 159 piano keys and these 221 picks for us for a competition?

We started early on begging various record companies for prizes for raffles, and we've certainly earned a reputation among our interview partners at Genesis for being completely crazy and greedy. In the past, there have been some great prizes to be won (signed keyboard keys, plectrums, CDs, etc.), and we'll continue to pester artists and companies for you in the future.

There's no business like music business.

Listing all the management companies, record labels, tour organisers, etc. we have ever dealt with would surely bore you. There were countless of them. The interest they showed in us varied greatly. It ranged from complete arrogance to hair-raising unfriendliness and patient indifference to normal friendliness and almost enthusiastic excitement about our work. At the top of the list of people who have supported us very well from the beginning to today is the entire Virgin team in Munich. Decision Products were also fantastic. Not that I want to step on the toes of everyone else who helped us.

Without the help of Hit & Run, Real World, Kudos, WEA, EMI, Peter Rieger, SPV, Brainworks, Voiceprint and countless others, much of what the club has achieved would not have been possible. But I rarely felt understood and accepted as a fan. But maybe my feelings were deceiving me. So, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the helpers on the 'other side of the telephone line' for their support.

Die it-UK-Tour 1992-95

Since Genesis is known to be an English band, our paths inevitably led us to their homeland from time to time. It began when Bernd and I wanted to see some indoor concerts on the Genesis UK tour in 1992. This led to us visiting some of the Genesis cult sites (Charterhouse, The Farm, etc.) and even conducting an interview with Anthony Phillips. However, this 'business trip' was not to be our last.

In April 1994, we set off for England again. This time, we had an interview with Steve Hackett and a meeting with Ant Phillips on the agenda.

Just six months later, we made our next trip across the Channel. The list of people we wanted to meet grew even longer: Peter Cross, Richard Macphail, Kim Poor, Anthony Phillips.

The now almost traditional autumn trip to England in 1995 brought us and you interviews with David Rhodes, Dale Newman, Tony Banks and Glen Colson. It was almost a given that we would also stop by to see Ant and Richard.

Unfortunately, this year's trip to the UK had to be cancelled due to lack of time (and numbers), but maybe it will work out again in 1997.

This list of meetings sounds wonderful, and in principle, of course, they were. Getting to know these people from the Genesis circle was fantastic and a great honour. Bernd and I really enjoyed the trips, even though they involved an enormous amount of work. First of all, all the dates had to be planned and coordinated. I don't know how many phone calls and faxes it took to prepare for the meeting with Tony, for example – probably a few dozen. During the 1994 autumn tour, we were only able to finalise all the dates once we were already in England, because no one wanted to commit to a specific day or time in the long or medium term. The only problem was that we had to plan our holiday and all our bookings well in advance.

These trips were often journeys into the unknown, and it was pure luck that everything worked out so well. Then there was the financial aspect, because anyone who thinks the club would finance such trips is mistaken. While others took their families on two-week trips to the seaside or the mountains, Bernd and I 'treated' ourselves to a whirlwind tour across England, often rushing from one appointment to the next, only to arrive home exhausted after a week. Well, it wasn't quite that bad, and since positive events are easier to remember than negative ones, looking back, these trips were actually a wonderful experience.

… What's that? – … A leaflet!

As mentioned at the beginning, it all started with an advertisement in Oldie-Markt. This was followed by sporadic classified ads in various music magazines such as ME-Sounds. We were listed in MTV Text, and our address was occasionally printed in some magazines. However, the concerts of Genesis & Co. were always a great opportunity for us to advertise, as we could expect a large number of potential customers to attend. There was practically no tour where we did not distribute more or less flyers. We would like to once again express our sincere thanks to all of you who helped us with this. Of course, we distributed most of the flyers at the 1992 Genesis concerts, often with the result that we ended up with the worst seats in the arena because we had to let the stream of visitors pass us by (keyword: Hockenheim).

At the following concerts, we usually decided to wait until the end of the concert to head for the exits. Only those who have been in this situation themselves know what you have to listen to when you stand with a bundle of flyers in your hand against the flow of a concert audience rushing home. After the umpteenth concert, you've had enough of it all – the stupid comments and the ignorance of the people. When everyone has passed you by, you turn around and see hundreds of discarded flyers lying in front of you, and you ask yourself, 'Why am I doing this?'

Meetings, events and other playful ideas

Organising meetings was something we considered a very important task for a fan club right from the start.

Unfortunately, we were only able to organise our first meeting in 1993 (Pentecost Sunday in Aschaffenburg). Seconds Out supported us, so we didn't have to worry about finding a venue for the meeting or paying rent. Almost everything was improvised on the day, except for the selection of videos and a few things we wanted to exhibit. Nevertheless, everything worked out quite well, except for the collectors' market, where the visitors almost trampled each other to death.

In 1994, we again attached ourselves to a Seconds Out concert, this time in October (Genesis Reunion Day) in Nuremberg. The venues were much cheaper and we were better prepared. Only the technology threw a spanner in the works, and so instead of watching comfortably on a screen, the crowd of visitors had to gather around a television. Nevertheless, this scene of silent, listening fans had a high cult value. We were very proud of the club's four display cases, which we used for the first time at this meeting for the exhibition.

With the 1995 meeting, we broke with one tradition (combining the club day with a Seconds Out concert) and returned to another (holding the meeting on Whit Sunday). We wanted to see whether we could attract enough fans to a meeting even without a live act. It worked, and thanks to some new event features (quiz, auction, etc.), this day was also a success, at least from our point of view. The exhibition had grown several times larger and rounded off the overall impression. Braunschweig was the obvious choice of venue because Peter and Bernd live there. In addition, many fans had (rightly) complained that we were holding the meetings too far south.

This year [1996], we organised two meetings. Both took place in the village of Welkers near Fulda – centrally located in Germany and easily accessible. The Club Meeting '96 took place on the obligatory Whitsunday. In addition to a slightly modified schedule, the short live act 'The Way We Folk' provided variety.

In September, the fan community gathered once again in Welkers for the Selling England By The Pound event. This was a slide and video show featuring rare material from the 1973-74 Genesis tour, hosted by Canadian long-time Genesis fan Serge Morissette. Fans from Italy and England, among others, also travelled to this event.

At the meetings and the event, one club member was at least as important as Peter, Bernd and me. In the past, he invested a great deal of time and energy in preparing the meetings with us, setting up and dismantling equipment and exhibitions, and ensuring that everything ran smoothly. We would like to express our sincere thanks to: Uwe Brehmer.

There is one idea that has been floating around in our heads for a long time, but we have not yet been able to realise it. We are talking about a fan club CD. The problem was, and still is, obtaining rare material through official channels – and that is what we want. A fan club bootleg is out of the question for us. So the project is not off the table, but it is a long way off.

…is this the end my friend?

So much for the review of our creative work to date. Over the past five years, each of us has probably learned more about Genesis through our work for the club than we otherwise would have, and we hope that we have been able to share this knowledge with you. Unfortunately, there are some things we cannot share with you to the same extent, such as some personal meetings with the artists. But we hope you will forgive us for this, because after all, we work long and hard enough for it. As long as you remain as loyal to us as you have been over the last five years and our contact with the record companies, management and band members does not deteriorate, this fan club will continue to exist.

Author and Fotos: Helmut Janisch
first published in it-Magazin #21, December 1996